Posted on 05/24/2004 11:59:15 AM PDT by RC30
There was a new flyer on the door of our church the other day advertising a play (concert?) called 'War Requiem.' I asked our Pastor if he knew anything about the advetisement and he said no, so I told him I'd research it. I did some research with google, but I dont see any truly revealing information about this musical work, other than it was written by Benjamin Britten for a church in England that was being rebuilt after the war. I found a couple of references to it possibly being used to protest the Vietnam War.
The church I go to is pretty conservative and being in Newport, RI has quite a few members that are in the Military (mostly Navy). Also I looked up the church in Providence, RI where this event is to be held and it would seem All Saints Memorial is an Episcopal Church who's Priest doesnt seem to think that New Hampshire's homosexual Bishop is a bad idea.
I saw the War Requiem Mass at the Kennedy Center in 1995. Absolutely stunning although disquieting. The poetry of Winfried Owen is interspersed with the Latin Mass for the dead.
You might also check http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~tan/Britten/britwar.html
"The War Requiem was not meant to be a pro-British piece or a glorification of British soldiers, but a public statement of Britten's anti-war convictions. It was a denunciation of the wickedness of war, not of other men."
FWIW
"There was a commission to write a major work for the opening of the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral in the English Midlands. The original city cathedral had been destroyed in massive bombing by the Luftwaffe. The 1961 inaugural service was to be a major event of reconciliation and Britten rose to the challenge with his War Requiem. This was by far the most successful work to emerge from the Coventry celebrations. It eclipsed Arthur Bliss’s Beatitudes, a work of comparable sincerity and achievement but which suffered in the glare of the glittering success of the War Requiem as also, to a slightly lesser degree, did Tippett’s opera King Priam, another work premiered in Coventry at the time. The War Requiem was first performed in Russia in Moscow in May 1966."
It had nothing whatever to do with Vietnam. It's a beautiful piece, once you get used to Britten's harmonies. (Mozart, Berlioz and Verdi it ain't.)
Don't know much about the War Requiem itself, but Britten was a homosexual. He used the tenor Peter Pears in just about all his operas, and he and Pears were lovers. No surprise, though, I guess, them being British...
Look up War Requiem Britten on Amazon.com music and look at the customer's comments. It's an anti-war 'peace' composition.
It's a stirring piece of music, and a condemnation of war in general. It was written in commemoration of the destruction of Coventry Cathedral in England during WWII.
I have performed in the orchestra for the piece several times, including once in Coventry Cathedral as it is today.
It's not about Vietnam. It's not about even WWII. It is about war. Unless you celebrate warfare as something to be hoped for, it will not offend you.
However, Britten's music does not please every ear.
The war had taken a huge toll on the art of singing songs by Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Mahler and Wolf. The great lieder singers of yore had died, and the new crop of singers that would have continued this tradition had lost their lives fighting for or against Hitler.
Britten and Pears established a school for lieder singers and accompanists at Aldeburgh, and they alone kept that great tradition alive. Such luminary accompanists as Gerald Moore and Graham Johnson came through Aldeburgh during their careers.
Even if Britten had not been a great composer, his work at Aldeburgh would have guaranteed him a place of immortality.
"Britten and Pears established a school for lieder singers and accompanists at Aldeburgh, and they alone kept that great tradition alive. Such luminary accompanists as Gerald Moore and Graham Johnson came through Aldeburgh during their careers. "
That's true. Britten also wrote a good deal of music for wind orchestras...all standards in the repertory of academic bands.
His music does not appeal to everyone, but is brilliant, nonetheless. I can see nothing about being gay that has anything to do with writing music.
Especially now that we know that Franz Schubert, the greatest of all lieder composers, was himself gay.
Didn't know that-I love lieder-yes, especially Schubert's-I have Wintereisse, Knaben, Wayfarer, etc.....also have a recording of Britten's Prince of the Pagodas...love it...
It is certianly his best work IMO. I met him once toward the end of his life. An uneven composer but this is a good work. It is actually pretty (musically) conservative for the times.
"It is certianly his best work IMO. I met him once toward the end of his life. "
I would agree. The performance at Coventry that I participated in as an oboist was nothing short of chilling. It is an enormous work, both musically, and in personnel requirements. I felt very lucky to be able to participate, even in a small way.
I never had an opportunity to meet the man, and envy you that. I would have liked to congratulate him on his work.
"Wow you guys are quick, thanks for your thoughts. I'm having some second thoughts about taking the flyer down but I'm not quite sure yet, especially since learning that there is going to be a lecture as well. "
I'm glad you're having second thoughts. This work is a religious work, incorporating the Mass. The lecture? Well, I don't have any idea what it's about. Perhaps you should look into that.
By the way, do you have the authority to remove this poster from your church? If not, I suggest you leave it to those who do.
Britten wrote a lot for oboe didn't he? I had quite forgot that. Are there not quite a few solo and small chamber works that features the oboe?
There are several good British composers from that time that do not get their due. Vaughn-Williams comes to mind.
All of them were push out by the dodecophonic "jesuits" as I call them. Are you a UK citizen?
You should listen to Hadyn's Mass in a Time of War - the two worked remind me of each other in an oblique sort of way. Nothing directly mind you.
Mozart: Quartet for Oboe and Strings in F, K. 370
Pardon me if you already know it. It is a wonderful piece that has too few listeners.
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